With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Michael Dietler will conduct chemical analyses on a series of ceramic samples of Etruscan amphoras collected from well dated sites in Southern France. Using techniques only recently applied to ceramics he will conduct combined scanning electron microscope (SEM) and electron microprobe examination. On this basis he will determine the chemical composition of the constituent clays and hopefully separate the amphorae into distinct groups. He will then compare these groupings to those derived from stylistic analysis of such attributes as vessel shape and size. In this first step of a longer term project Dr. Dietler hopes to either confirm or revise the topology developed by archaeologists over many years. In the next stage he will attempt to use similar chemical analysis to tie these classes to places of origin in Etruscan Italy. Surprisingly, although archaeologists know that these amphorae were made by Etruscan peoples in Italy, most recovered examples come either from shipwrecks or sites in southern France. Very little information is available from their points of origin. These vessels were used to carry wine to France and were ultimately discarded there. The underlying issue which Dr. Dietler wishes to examine concerns neither wine nor amphorae per se, but rather cultural, political and economic relations between political entities at different stages of development. During Etruscan times, from approximately the 7th to 3rd millennia BC state level societies developed in Italy while in northern and western Europe people still lived at a less complex tribal stage of organization. Dr. Dieter wants to understand the strategies employed by the Etruscans in the interactions with their less developed neighbors and how groups in southern France reacted and underwent partial, selective acculturation. In addition to the knowledge this research will provide about European prehistory, it is important because of the methodological contribution it will make. Although the combined SEM electron microprobe technique is currently used in geological studies it has not been applied in archaeological contexts. If it is successful, it may greatly simplify ceramic analysts' work. Dr. Dieter's research constitutes a first practical test and the methodological implications are considerable.
